It’s almost crunch time for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. They’ve announced their sophomore LP High Visceral {Part 2}, they have a national tour kicking off on the 20th and they’re working hard to make sure the LP is delivered to your ears in the most mind-altering, brain-fucking and gratuitously rock ‘n’ roll way possible.
With just a week to go before the record drops, we sat down with guitarist and frontman Jack McEwan. As our lens into the recording process for High Visceral {Part 2}, he was more than happy to discuss how the fellas are changing it up, what’s in store on the rest of the LP and how to sneak into their gigs if you’re under 18.
Chainsaw guitars, steam engine percussion and chasing that ‘how’s your nan feeling’. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets open up the vault on High Visceral {Part 2}.
HAPPY: When we announced your tour we had a couple of underage Facebook fans debating on whether they should sneak in to your Brisbane gig or bring their Dad. Do you have a message for Gus, Hugh or their dads?
JACK: That they’re both heroes, dads’n’all. All of the shows on the tour are 18+ but we’re stoked that Gus, Hugh and other younger crew are keen to see us live and listen to our music. Hopefully next tour we’ll be able to add some underage shows in the mix!
HAPPY: On top of those lads, you seem to have fans all over the world now. Did you expect your music to spread so far so quickly?
JACK: Of course not, we still cheer when we get a new follower, I don’t think that feeling will ever go away. It’s mad to think that our little project is even pressed to vinyl. Now it’s starting to become a ‘thing’ our first instinct is to dive right into it, see how far the horizon stretches and write as many albums as possible, expand our musical brains and learn from every new conversation and place we’re fortunate enough to travel too.
HAPPY: When you started out, there were a ton of psych bands kicking around Perth. Were you aware of a need to distinguish yourself somehow?
JACK: That’s always been drilled into my head from one of my early high school bands. My good friend Michael, our singer at the time would ridicule me if a song I wrote sounded faintly similar to anything he had heard before, so after x,y,z many years of writing it’s kind of become instinctual to stray away from other sounds.
Obviously I’m influenced by hundreds of artists but I’ll just be in awe of them and get jealous of the fact they wrote an amazing riff and I didn’t. Even now in Porn Crumpets we’ve scrapped finished songs because a little riff or breakdown part sounds like another tune, I find it easier to start again on a new idea than get completely overwhelmed trying to fix another.
HAPPY: Do you still feel like you need to continue carving your own niche?
JACK: I think our niche is (luckily for us) the stuff we really enjoy writing. The Crumpet quirk is to fill a song with as many unconventional ideas as possible then work backwards and take out the normal parts. If somethings too majory, or uninteresting for us to play or listen to, then it needs more work.
This second album has had a good year of construction under its belt, a lot of cool material was thrown away and the majority of stuff we wrote will be gathering dust on an Ableton file for the rest of its days. But the 10 tracks we chose to focus on give more flavour to our discography and looking onto the third album we can head in whichever direction we want, expanding that so called niche.
HAPPY: Coming into album number two, is there any way you were attacking it differently?
JACK: We knew the production from part one had to be stepped up so we worked with Dave Parkin from Blackbird Studio to get the biggest drum sound possible. He’s a lord at what he does, we evolved so much from the week we were there. The rest we did ourselves, improving where we could from part 1. I hired out a bass head and borrowed Jelly’s cab to build a chunkier, heavier bass sound that would compliment the percussive elements and build for a massive rhythm section for everything else to be layered upon.
Guitar amps we mic’d up with 57s and a tube condenser to add that warmth and then a sprinkle of DI guitars to fatten it up and give that extra ‘hows your nan’ quality for post production.
We’re all extremely happy with how it’s turned out and can’t wait to release it.
HAPPY: We’ve heard Gurzle so far, what’s this song about and where did it come from sonically?
JACK: Gurzle was probably the longest song on the album to write. We spent a good three to four months working on it and making it the song that it is. The intro riff I was playing at the Workers Club in Melbourne on our first tour and the guys liked it, so when we got back to jam in Perth we started carving away at it. It’s themed around our generation who have been given a broken planet to fix, but we’re too immersed in virtual realities and force fed entertainment that no one really cares about, or chooses not to at least. It’s easier to escape into a world of colour and imagination than come to terms with having no money, a burdened future in a world separated by aged opinions and greedy corporations who refuse to evolve with the times.
I did have a part where I shouted “what happened to my $7 footlong” because I practically live on them, I think it’s just a mega release of youth interpreted life being launched aimlessly at a very high speed. Jamie Canny from Koi Child improvised like a 70s ‘bond villain on crack’ sax and transformed the song into a monster, if the song had a face it would be old mate Javier Bardem from No Country for Old Men walking round with his compressed air thingy blowing holes in baby boomer brains.
HAPPY: If you had to brand and sell your own crumpet, what would the ad catchphrase be?
JACK: Baby Boomer Brains.
HAPPY: Oath. Are you going to be changing up the stage set in any way for the second national tour?
JACK: We’re working on a set now for the tour, it’s just non stop adrenaline. We’ve found the violins and more swirly ambient pieces don’t work as well so it’s basically chainsaws for guitars, steam engines for drums.
HAPPY: Lastly, for the fans who will be listening to the album for the first time: what’s the ideal situation to consume High Visceral {Part 2}
JACK: With your dad, trying to break into a venue.
Stay tuned for High Visceral {Part 2}, premiering right here on Happy Mag on April 13th.
The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets tour is kicking off one week later on April 20th. Catch the full run of dates below, and grab your tickets by following the links.
Thu 20 Apr – The Crown & Anchor, Adelaide – Event – Tickets
Fri 21 Apr – Yah Yah’s, Melbourne – Event
Sat 22 Apr – Fresh Hop Beer Festival, Launceston – Event – Tickets
Sun 23 Apr – The Brisbane, Hobart – Event – Tickets
Wed 26 Apr – Rad Bar, Wollongong – Event – Tickets
Thu 27 Apr – Oxford Art Gallery, Sydney – Event – Tickets on sale soon!
Fri 28 Apr – The Northern, Byron Bay (Free Entry) – Event
Sat 29 Apr – Miami Shark Bar, Gold Coast – Event – Tickets
Sun 30 Apr – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane – Event – Tickets
Fri 5 May – The Prince Of Wales, Bunbury (Free Entry) – Event
Sat 6 May – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River (Free Entry) – Event
Sat 27 May – Rosemount Hotel, Perth – Event – Tickets
